DOVER — The fourth week of the Seth Mazzaglia murder trial started with Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley and public defender Joachim Barth arguing before Judge Steven Houran about what conversations Barth could use on his recross-examination of the state's star witness, Kathryn “Kat” McDonough.

By Kimberley Haaskhaas@fosters.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story contains graphic descriptions of sex and/or violence that some readers may find offensive.

DOVER - Public defender Joachim Barth used Kathryn "Kat" McDonough's "addiction to sex" to lead her into testimony about Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott's participation in a strip poker game which prosecutors say preceded the rape and murder of Marriott by Seth Mazzaglia Oct. 9, 2012.

McDonough, 20, the state's star witness, has been testifying in the trial for 10 court days. She is under re-cross examination by Barth, and this is the last opportunity for the jury to hear her words in the bondage, domination and sadomasochism murder trial that has shocked the state and region.

Mazzaglia, 31, of Dover, has been charged with first and second degree murder. Prosecutors claim Mazzaglia strangled Marriott with a rope and then raped her limp body before he and McDonough dumped the 19-year-old University of New Hampshire student's corpse into the Piscataqua River from a cliff at Peirce Island in Portsmouth.

McDonough told Barth on Monday that she did not have an addiction to sex or an obsession with introducing other women into the couple's BDSM relationship. Instead, she said, it was an addiction to Seth.

Barth asked McDonough about a Facebook conversation she had with Mazzaglia in November of 2011, when the couple first became sexually involved while she was a senior at Portsmouth Regional High School.

In the conversation, McDonough was talking about her need for a "dark haired lady." Barth was asserting that McDonough needed other women in her relationship with Mazzaglia because of her own desire to be with women.

But McDonough said she needed another woman to talk to as she slowly worked her way into Mazzaglia's BDSM world.

"I needed someone else in my life. I didn't have anyone else I could confide in, and he was doing things to me that I thought maybe weren't okay and all I had were his other personalities to confide in," McDonough said. "I needed someone, not a sex partner, but I needed a friend."

Barth played a recorded jailhouse conversation between McDonough and Mazzaglia so the jury could hear McDonough's own words about being interested in women. During that conversation, which occurred approximately one year after the Facebook message, Mazzaglia told McDonough he spoke to a woman in jail who was asking him questions about what would happen to the couple if they got married and he was sent to prison.

"There is a very devout and religious woman here," Mazzaglia said, laughing as he described the woman's concerns for whether or not McDonough would become resentful if he was locked up and she was lonely and left on her own.

"I said, 'Well, there are some unique aspects of our relationship that would make the loneliness less,' " Mazzaglia told McDonough during the conversation.

Mazzaglia went on to say McDonough had his permission to be with other women while he was in jail.

"If you don't need that, you don't need that. I don't want you to feel stuck in a world where you are angry and you hate the world," Mazzaglia told McDonough.

"I think I figured out that my addiction was to you and not the fun," McDonough said.

"The what?" Mazzaglia asked.

"My little addiction was to you, not the fun," McDonough repeated.

After Mazzaglia understood what she meant, he said that he was focused on McDonough and "what adventures we might go off into."

This conversation laid the groundwork for Barth's transition into what happened with Marriott on a visit she made to Mazzaglia's Sawyer Mill apartment on Oct. 2, 2012. That led to a line of questioning in which Barth tried to establish Marriott's consent to a sexual encounter with McDonough and Mazzaglia.

Barth asked McDonough about the choices Marriott was presented with by Mazzaglia and McDonough the night she was killed. There were options such as to watch a movie or develop role characters for Dungeons and Dragons.

"It was her choice she made?" Barth asked. "To play strip poker?"

"Yeah, we listed some options," McDonough said, "Her decision was to play strip poker."

Marriott was wearing only a pair of thong underwear at the end of the game. According to McDonough, her body – which has never been recovered – was covered in only seaweed when she submerged it in the water.

Barth finished his morning questioning by asking McDonough about what she told public defenders when she visited their Dover office on Oct. 15, two days after Mazzaglia was arrested.

According to testimony and recordings of the meeting, McDonough told attorneys and an investigator there that Marriott died during a consensual BDSM threesome. McDonough described a complicated rope harness she placed around Marriott's body and neck before sitting on the young woman's face.

Barth has been seeking to prove that McDonough was telling the truth when she made those statements.
The state, meanwhile, says it McDonough's account was one of two false stories she and Mazzaglia planned to give police if they were ever caught. The other story, in which Marriott never showed up at the apartment, was going to be followed by a claim of BDSM gone wrong if anybody questioned the first account.

McDonough has repeatedly told Barth that she was lying to employees when she met with defense attorneys. She said she never planned to tell anyone the truth about what happened and that she only started telling the truth when she understood the full implications of the crimes.

DOVER — The fourth week of the Seth Mazzaglia murder trial started with Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley and public defender Joachim Barth arguing before Judge Steven Houran about what conversations Barth could use on his recross-examination of the state's star witness, Kathryn “Kat” McDonough.

Barth wanted to use a recorded phone conversation from Strafford County jail in which Mazzaglia supposedly chose his attorneys based upon a tarot card reading by McDonough. She has been on the witness stand for 10 days of the trial.

He also wanted to use a conversation between Mazzaglia and McDonough in which she references "her little addiction." Barth said that conversation shows McDonough was the one interested in pursuing other women, and that Mazzaglia was open to her having sexual relations with women while he was incarcerated.The third conversation Barth wanted to use was a conversation McDonough had with witness Roberta Gerkin after Mazzaglia was arrested.

Hinckley was not opposed to Barth's recross-examination on that conversation, but wanted to include the portion in which McDonough said she did not do anything on the night of Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott's death.

Houran decided all three conversations could be used.

Barth started his recross-examination of McDonough in front of the jury at approximately 9:45 a.m.